First Page:

Page 23: "The people that is, the promiscuous mass of
mankind hardly exist to Froissart." 'promiscuous' amended from
'promiscous'.

Page 178: "Gil Blas, discouraged, was about to leave Dr. Sangrado's
service, when that distinguished physician said to him we take up
the text of the story once more:" 'Blas' amended from 'Glas'.

Page 189: "When the Christian religion, two centuries ago, became
unhappily divided into Catholic and Protestant, the people of the
north embraced the Protestant, and those south adhered still to the
Catholic." 'unhappily' amended from 'unhappilly'.

Page 238: "His European reputation in science made his name a tower
of strength to the 'Encyclopædia,' even after he ceased to be an
editorial coadjutor in the enterprise." 'editorial' amended from
'editoral'.

Page 295: "Dickens's Pegasus often flies with his bit between his
teeth. 'between' amended from 'beween'.

OTHER BOOKS BY PROFESSOR WILKINSON

THE EPIC OF SAUL

THE EPIC OF PAUL

WEBSTER: AN ODE. WITH NOTES

POEMS

A FREE LANCE IN THE FIELD OF LIFE AND LETTERS (Volume of Essays)

EDWIN ARNOLD AS POETIZER AND AS PAGANIZER

THE DANCE OF MODERN SOCIETY

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON

WILKINSON'S FOREIGN CLASSICS IN ENGLISH

FRENCH CLASSICS

BY

WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON

PROFESSOR OF POETRY AND CRITICISM
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1909

COPYRIGHT 1900

BY

WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON.

( Printed in the United States of America )

PREFACE.

The preparation of the present volume proposed to the author a task more
difficult far than that undertaken in the case of either of the
literatures, the Greek or the Latin, treated in the four preceding
volumes of the present series. Those volumes dealt with literatures
limited and finished; this volume deals with a literature indefinitely
vast in extent, and still in vital process of growth. The selection of
material to be used was, in the case of the earlier volumes, virtually
made for the author beforehand, in a manner greatly to ease his sense of
responsibility for the exercise of individual judgment and taste. Long
prescription, joined to the winnowing effect of wear and waste through
time and chance, had left little doubt what works of what writers, Greek
and Roman, best deserved now to be shown to the general reader. Besides
this, the prevalent custom of the schools of classical learning could
then wisely be taken as a clew of guidance to be implicitly followed,
whatever might be the path through which it should lead. There is here
no similar avoidance of responsibility possible; for the schools have
not established a custom, and French literature is a living body, from
which no important members have ever yet been rent by the ravages of
time.

The plan of this volume, together with the compass proposed for it,
created the necessity of establishing from the outset certain limits to
be very strictly observed. There could be no introductory general
matter, beyond a rapid and summary review of that literature, as a
whole, which is the subject of the book. The list of authors selected
for representation must not include the names of any still living. A
third thing resolved upon was to make the number of representative
names small rather than large, choice rather than inclusive. The
principle at this point adopted was to choose those authors only whose
merit, or whose fame, or whose influence, might be supposed
unquestionably such that their names and their works would certainly be
found surviving, though the language in which they wrote should, like
its parent Latin, have perished from the tongues of men. The proportion
of space severally allotted to the different authors was to be measured
partly according to their relative importance, and partly according to
their estimated relative capacity of interesting in translation the
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